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Meta ads run on four aspect ratios. 9:16 for Stories and Reels, 4:5 for vertical Feed, 1:1 for square Feed, and 1.91:1 for landscape link ads. 4:5 is the tallest image Meta will show in the Feed. The safe zone is the part of the frame Meta's own interface does not sit on top of: in full-screen vertical placements, keep text and logos out of roughly the top 14 percent and the bottom third, because that is where the profile name, the caption, the audio ticker and the call to action live. Those reserved areas vary by placement and app version, so build to the ratios, keep the important content central, and preview in Ads Manager before launch.
Check this before you ship
Ad specs change, often quietly. Aspect ratios are stable and safe to build against. Exact pixel margins, file size ceilings and duration caps are not, and reserved interface areas differ by placement and by app version. Treat the numbers on this page as a starting point, then check the platform's own current specification before you sign off on a production file.
Last reviewed: . Official source: Meta Ads Guide (official placement specifications).
The rule that outlives every redesign
Keep essential text and branding toward the centre of the frame, and preview the ad in the real placement before you launch it.
Build one 9:16 master and one 4:5 master with all critical content inside the middle 60 percent, and you will survive most of what Meta does to its interface.
Everything below is detail on top of that. Ratios are the stable layer and are safe to build against. Pixel margins, file size ceilings and duration caps are the volatile layer, which is why they are marked as commonly documented rather than stated as fact.
Meta aspect ratios by placement
| Placement | Aspect ratio | Commonly recommended resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook and Instagram Feed, image | 1:1 or 4:5 | 1080 x 1080 or 1080 x 1350 |
| Facebook and Instagram Feed, video | 1:1 or 4:5 | 1080 x 1080 or 1080 x 1350 |
| Stories | 9:16 | 1080 x 1920 |
| Reels | 9:16 | 1080 x 1920 |
| Facebook in-stream video | 16:9 or 1:1 | 1920 x 1080 or 1080 x 1080 |
| Facebook right column | 1.91:1 | 1200 x 628 |
| Marketplace | 1:1 or 4:5 | 1080 x 1080 or 1080 x 1350 |
| Link ad, landscape | 1.91:1 | 1200 x 628 |
4:5 is the tallest ratio the Feed will render. Anything taller gets cropped, and the crop is not always the one you would have chosen.
Safe zones, as a share of the frame
A safe zone is the area of the frame that Meta's interface does not cover. It is not a Meta feature you switch on. It is a habit you build into the artboard.
Percentages are used here on purpose. Pixel margins go stale every time an app ships a redesign, whereas the proportion of the screen the interface occupies moves far less. Reserved areas still vary by placement and by app version, so treat these as a design margin rather than a measurement. For the concept itself, see safe zone in the glossary.
| Placement | Keep clear | What sits there |
|---|---|---|
| Stories | Roughly the top 14 percent and the bottom 20 percent of the frame | Progress bar, profile name and time stamp at the top. Call to action and swipe affordance at the bottom. |
| Reels | Roughly the top 14 percent, the bottom 35 percent, and a strip down the right edge | Caption, account name and audio ticker along the bottom. Like, comment, share and menu buttons stacked on the right. |
| Feed, 4:5 | Nothing is overlaid, but assume a centre crop | No interface furniture. The risk here is the same asset being re-cropped into 1:1 for another placement. |
These percentages are widely used working figures, not published constants. Confirm against the official specification above, and preview the creative in the live placement before sign-off.
Text fields
| Field | Commonly documented limit | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Primary text | 125 characters | Longer copy is not rejected. It is collapsed behind a See more link, and most people never expand it. |
| Headline | 27 characters | Truncation point varies by placement. Short headlines survive every placement. |
| Link description | 27 characters | Not rendered in every placement at all. |
These are recommendations for what displays without truncation, not hard rejection limits. Verify the current figures in Ads Manager, which shows the truncation live as you type.
File limits
| Item | Commonly documented limit |
|---|---|
| Image formats | JPG and PNG |
| Image file size | Up to 30 MB |
| Video formats | MP4, MOV and GIF |
| Video file size | Up to 4 GB |
| Stories video length | Up to 60 seconds per card |
| Reels video length | Minutes are permitted, but the effective range is under 15 seconds |
File size ceilings move. Check Meta's Ads Guide before you export a large master file.
Start from the ratio, not the pixel count
Aspect ratios have been stable on Meta for years. Pixel margins have not. If you design to 9:16 and 4:5 and keep the important content central, a Reels interface redesign costs you nothing. If you design to a memorised pixel margin, it costs you a reshoot.
The practical build is two masters. One 1080 x 1920 vertical for Stories and Reels, one 1080 x 1350 for the Feed. Everything else is a crop from those two.
The 20 percent text rule is gone
Meta used to reject or throttle images with more than 20 percent text coverage, and a generation of media buyers still designs around it. That rule was retired. Heavy text overlay is allowed.
It is still usually a bad idea in a full-screen placement, because the parts of the frame with the most room for text are exactly the parts the interface covers. The constraint moved from policy to physics.
Where creatives actually break
Almost every broken Meta creative fails in one of three ways. A logo tucked into a bottom corner disappears under the caption. A price or a legal line sits in the top strip and is covered by the profile name. Or a 9:16 asset gets auto-cropped into the Feed and loses a third of its composition.
All three are prevented by the same step, which is previewing the ad in each placement before launch rather than after.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a safe zone in an ad?
- A safe zone is the part of the frame that the app's own interface does not cover. In a Meta Story or Reel, the top strip holds the profile name and progress bar and the bottom third holds the caption and call to action, so anything essential placed there can be hidden. Keeping text and logos inside the central portion of the frame is what makes a creative safe across placements.
- What size should a Reels ad be?
- 9:16, commonly exported at 1080 x 1920. That ratio has been stable for as long as Reels has existed. Keep essential text and branding out of roughly the top 14 percent and the bottom 35 percent, because the caption, audio ticker and action buttons sit there, and check Meta's current specification before final delivery.
- How much text can a Meta ad have?
- As much as you like. The old 20 percent image text rule was retired, so heavy text overlay no longer triggers rejection. What still bites is truncation: primary text is commonly documented as displaying about 125 characters before a See more link, and headlines truncate far sooner than that. Ads Manager shows the truncation point live while you type, which is more reliable than any published number.
- What is the tallest image Meta will show in the Feed?
- 4:5. Anything taller is cropped. This is why 4:5 is the default for Feed creative: it takes the maximum vertical space available without handing the crop decision to Meta.
- Do Facebook and Instagram use the same ad specs?
- Largely yes, because both are bought through Meta Ads Manager and share the same ratios and text fields. The differences are in placement inventory rather than dimensions. Facebook has right column and Marketplace placements that Instagram does not, and Instagram leans harder on 9:16.
- How often do Meta ad specs change?
- Ratios rarely. Interface layout, and therefore safe zones, changes with app releases and with no announcement. That is why this page states safe zones as percentages of frame and asks you to verify against Meta's Ads Guide before production sign-off.
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